The Biggest Challenge of My Life
by madden1010
Summary: Katniss Everdeen is pulled into a slightly different world, one that she never imagined to be real. Family secrets are revealed, and it's time for her to turn over a new leaf. Set before Prim's name is drawn out at the reaping and after Breaking Dawn.


_***A.N. Hello everyone, this is a new story, and I hope you all enjoy it.  
It's a crossover between the Hunger Games and Twilight, set before Prim's name was drawn at the reaping, and after Breaking Dawn.  
To anyone that reviews, I don't usually reply to reviews, but if you have any questions or wish to suggest things for the plot, I will probably reply. So yeah, take a look, and tell me what you think. Happy reading, Mariah xoxo.**_

Something very strange happened to me while I was out hunting with Gale one afternoon. There was a gentle rustling that I could hear, so I drew out an arrow from my sheath and took aim. Gale looked at me funny, so I pointed to the rustling plant, and then looked at Gale, who had a questioning look upon his face.

I drew the arrow back into the bow, towards my right shoulder, and let go suddenly, hearing the proud _twang _of the string and the _whoosh _of the arrow rushing through the air towards the plant.

To show Gale why I'd just done that, because obviously he didn't hear the rustling, I climbed down from the dark, splintery tree we were both currently positioned in. Walking through the crunching leaves and the shallow shrubs of the woods, I parted the plant that I just shot my arrow into, got a hold of my arrow, and produced a large black rabbit about the size of the plant it was hiding in.

Gale stayed in the tree, just looking at me awkwardly. It's usually Gale that has the better hearing, who usually hears the things that I don't, but obviously not this time, and the way that he looked at me at that moment made me feel as if I were freak.

I tried to make my way back up the tree, holding onto every protruding branch that I could reach, and suddenly a wave of dizziness took a hold of me. Feeling as if all the blood in my body was rushing to my head, I tried my best to scale my way back up to the branch that Gale was positioned on. But I lost all control of my arms and legs, and then felt a sharp pain at the back of my skull before I got the chance to stand up and assess the damage. 

My bed was surrounded by Prim and my mother, well not so surrounded. But I was seeing double, so it felt like more of a crowd. I watched a set of identical Prims holding a set of identical cups of tea, willing me to sit up and drink. My head was sore, and I sat up to feel it, but it ached, and I felt many layers of bandage covering the many sore spots, not just on my head, but on my scraped hand, which were damaged while I was trying to grab hold of branches.

I still felt dizzy, and my fever had an indescribable heat, making me want to immerse myself into a vat of ice. My mother and Prim tended to me like I was a patient with a serious illness, when all that I did was fall from a tree and hit my head, which somehow gave me a fever. But this would soon pass, and I wouldn't have been the first patient of my mother that's hit their head.

Gale opened the door to my bedroom and came in quietly, and I saw my mother and Prim give him an approving look. Gale must've been the one that brought me back from the woods. I must've been out for at least an hour, which would've given Gale enough time to get me back home, and my family to care for me.

"Hey Catnip. Pretty tough fall you had. I had to carry you all the way back home." He told me as if it were the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.

"Hmm, sorry you had to do so much work by yourself. Did you bring back the rabbit and give it to Greasy Sae?" I said apologetically, but at the same time I had a hard time keeping a smile from my face.

"Yes, I couldn't just leave the rabbit there, could I? It was kind of already dead. It would be a waste of meat if I'd just left it, or another hungry animal would've eaten a family's feed." He explained with a very serious look on his face.

"But did you give it to Greasy Sae?" I asked. Why hadn't he answered that question yet? Perhaps he was just concerned about me and the massive lump on my head.

"Well, no. She said to just keep it, seeing as you hit your head and all. And wait 'til she finds out that you now have the fever as well. She definitely won't regret you keeping it."

I just shook my head. I was really in no state to argue, but I disagreed with Greasy Sae. There were many other families in District 12 that go with less food than us. Our meals were in abundance compared to some of the other families. I hardly deserved a full rabbit just for falling out of a tree.

"Please, just go take the rabbit back to Greasy Sae, and tell her that it is of my best interest that a worse off family than mine gets this rabbit. After all, if I make another catch like that, we may not be living in poverty for much longer. Send my regards," I briefly explain, verbally evicting Gale from my bedroom.

With that, Gale was out of the room, taking the rabbit to Greasy Sae to give away in the Hob.

My mother and Prim re-entered the room several hours later, after I'd had a long nap, carrying a hot bowl of vegetable soup.

"Eat up," Prim said, "You won't get any better if you don't eat. Vegetables might be the best thing for you." She finished, then handed me a bread roll to go with the soup.

"Since when do we have bread rolls? We usually don't even have oats in the morning for breakfast." I ask her. It seemed like it had been forever since I'd even looked at a bread roll, let alone eaten one.

"Courtesy of the Mellark family. You know the ones that own the bakery."

I just nodded, because I was already indulging myself in the wheaty-white heaven.

Prim left the room with a smile, the kind of smile that warms your heart from inside out, even in the toughest of times.

My mother came over to my bedside, looking to comfort me, I suppose. It's true what they say; it is very boring to be bedridden.

"Honey, there is something that I never told you that I should've. Your father...he went through this as well as you. I mean, I had to expect something, but it's unusual in girls." She sighed; sort of expectant, sort of shocked.

"So you're telling me that my father fell from a tree and hit his head too? Accompanied by feverish, bedridden days?" I ask her, a bit dumbly I suppose.

"Well, not the first part. But he was bedridden for at least a month. And then he changed. I was only 15 then, and your father was 17. It was the first time I met him, as I tended to him in my beginning months as a doctor. It was quite an unusual case, and no one knew what was going on with him. He was fine one day, and the next, without the slightest hint of warning, he got a fever. That fever lasted about a month." She explained, trying her best to explain to me that I was not just a normal case of the fever. I was more.

"And what happened then mother? Tell me it all, because if I'm going to take after father, then what am I in for, apart than a month-long fever?" I asked her, desperate for answers.

"Well, I don't know if it's different for you, but he grew at least another foot. I don't know of any other females who have shown the symptoms of becoming a..." She told me, seemingly unable to choke out the last word or two.

"Becoming a what? What's wrong?"

"Becoming a...a wolf," She grabbed a tissue, sobbing uncontrollable tears into it.

I couldn't believe it. I was going to turn into a cold-blooded monster. This couldn't be right. Is that why I fell from the tree so easily, when I could usually scale it so quickly? Is that why I could hear he rabbit in the bush and Gale couldn't?

"Will I get to live with you and Prim still? I mean, I'll still be a good hunter and all. Gale could get the animals with the arrows, and I could carry them back in my mouth or on my back. We'd still be an efficient team." I told her, but I somehow knew that I wouldn't be able to do either of those things.

"You wouldn't be a regular wolf. You'd be a werewolf. Like in those stories your father used to tell you. They were all true stories about him and other wolves he'd met."

"So I'm going to change at the full moon. Involuntarily?"

"Well, not exactly. You change whenever you need to."

I had trouble understanding and digesting what my mother was telling me. It must've been so hard to tell me that this was going to happen to me. And her daughter, of all people, had to be turning into a monster.  
I wished I could just regurgitate a bit of the information I was given. I didn't think that I'd be able to cope with it all.

"So what happened with my father? Why did he choose to go work in the mines if he could still hunt? I mean, if turning into a wolf wasn't involuntary." I questioned. I didn't understand my father's choice.

"Well, he thought they could use the power. Werewolves are a lot stronger than your regular human. And there's one more thing I need to tell you." She said, holding back tears from what I could tell.

"And what would that be? Please, no more surprises." I said to her. I already had enough for me to absorb.

"Your father never died in the mine. He wasn't brought out of the mine because he escaped before it collapsed. He ran away after, thinking that it would probably better for you and Prim to not have someone around that was so dangerous. He found it hard to control himself when he was a wolf, and he was a wolf a lot of the time. He just felt so free, and he didn't want to hurt you and Prim."

So, not only do I find out that I am turning into a werewolf this very second, but I also find out that my father was not in fact dead, but had run away because he liked being a wolf better than being my father.

"Then what about Mr Hawthorne? I suppose he's alive too, then." I said hopingly, so Gale and I could go through this together.

"He really did pass away in the mine. I'm sorry. I really should have told you earlier. It's not fair for you to discover this now, and so close to the reaping." My mother said, and searched for forgiveness on my face, but I didn't show any. I just showed remorse, remorse for not being able to know my father properly.

"Get out of my bedroom please." I whispered while tears welled up in my eyes, and there was no way they would stop for anyone.

"Katniss, please just try to understand!" My mother said desperately, and cried because I cried. "You can't tell Prim. Not yet. She's too young to understand any of this."

"Just get out. Please. I want some sleep."

I nodded my head towards the door because it hurt too much to move. My mother listened to my demands, and carried my empty bowl and plate out with her.

Why is my life such a challenge?

_***A.N. Hey, I hope you liked it. Remember to read and review it, I really want to know what you think. I should be updating this soon, as long as I get a few reviews. So yeah, until next time, Mariah xoxo.**_


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